Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track more than 700 prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile gigantic failures like hedge funds’ recent losses in Valeant. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) in this article.
Is Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) the right pick for your portfolio? The smart money is buying. The number of long hedge fund bets inched up by 3 in recent months. Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) was in 34 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 31 hedge funds in our database with Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) to other stocks including Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), and China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHA) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)
Follow Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)
In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, We hone in on the upper echelon of this club, approximately 700 funds. These investment experts control bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by observing their unrivaled equity investments, Insider Monkey has deciphered various investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action surrounding Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB).
Hedge fund activity in Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 34 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, an increase of 10% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the number one position in Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB). AQR Capital Management has a $234.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Adage Capital Management, led by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holding a $196.2 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that are bullish consist of Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Renaissance Technologies.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have jumped into Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) headfirst. Kingdon Capital, managed by Mark Kingdon, established the largest position in Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB). Kingdon Capital had $10.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $10.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) positions are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, and Soros Fund Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB). These stocks are Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHA), and ABB Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:ABB). All of these stocks’ market caps match Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAT | 40 | 1236703 | 10 |
| COF | 53 | 1466178 | 12 |
| CHA | 4 | 6297 | -1 |
| ABB | 9 | 163110 | -2 |
As you can see, these stocks had an average of 27 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $718 million. That figure was $1.19 billion in Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)’s case. Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHA) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
